My main focus is reviewing manga and anime, but I also review Japanese literature, movies, and videogames. Basically, if it has anything to do with Japan, I'll talk about it, along with a dash of Korea and China.

Episode 40: Podcast manga review for The Key to the Kingdom Volume 1 by Kyoko Shitou. Translated and adapted by Sheldon Drzka. Originally published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten in 2003. Published in US by CMX, $9.99. Rated T+.

The King of Landor and his eldest son, Winslott, have been killed in an ongoing civil war that has waged off and on for 300 years. The next in line for the throne is thirteen-year-old Prince Astarion, or Asta, as he is called by his friends. Actually, a lot of the nobles and common people call him Cowardly Prince Ass because he's always been more interested in books and music and looks on fighting as savagery. In a bid to gain more time for him to become worthy of being king, the widowed queen proposes a quest to recover the Key to the Kingdom, a mythical object that would make its possessor king of the world and make the land flourish. Asta and Badd, a Landorian military captain, set out to find it, along with other seekers of royal blood, even as rumors of a Dragon Man being sighted in Landor comes to light. Dragon Men are immortal beings connected to the Key.